Method and system for providing location-based services in multiple coverage area environments

• US 20040120323A1
• Filed: 11/12/2002
• Published: 06/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Forstadius, Antti, Viikari, Jere, Ginman, Tommy
• Granted Patent: US 7,263,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/395.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/22 with access to wired networks

Abstract

A resource request that is originated by a short-range wireless communications device originates a request. A location indicator is added to the resource request that identifies a location of the WCD. The location indicator is based on a coverage area within an access point that forwarded the resource request. Then, the resource request is forwarded to a content server.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining location-based information services, comprising:

(a) receiving a resource request from an access point having a plurality of coverage areas, the resource request originated by a short-range wireless communications device (WCD) within one of the plurality of coverage areas;

(b) adding to the resource request a location indicator that identifies a location of the WCD, wherein the location indicator is based on said one coverage area; and

(c) forwarding the resource request to a content server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location indicator includes location coordinates.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said adding step includes inserting the location indicator into a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said adding step includes inserting the location indicator into the resource request as one or more headers of the resource request.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said inserting step includes inserting the location indicator into the resource request as one or more extension headers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource request is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the location indicator further indicates a vertical position of the WCD.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said step (b) comprises selectively adding the location indicator to the resource request when the resource request identifies a suitable destination domain.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said step (b) comprises selectively adding the location indicator to the resource request when the resource request is originated by one or more predetermined WCDs.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding user profile information to the resource request.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a device class of the WCD to the resource request.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding an address of the WCD to the resource request.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource request is a wireless application protocol (WAP) request.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the WCD communicates with the access point across a Bluetooth wireless communications link.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the location indicator based on said one coverage area is predefined.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the location indicator based on said one coverage area dynamically changes.

17. An apparatus for providing location-based services, the apparatus comprising:

a location manager database that stores location indicators for short-range wireless communications devices (WCDs), wherein the location indicator for each WCD is based on one of a plurality of coverage areas associated with an access point, wherein the access point supports a wireless connection with the WCD through said one coverage area;

a location appending unit configured to receive resource requests originated by the WCDs, and for each request, to add the location indicator that corresponds to the requesting WCD.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location manager database stores the location indicators as location coordinates.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to insert the location indicators into Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to insert the location indicators into the resource request as one or more headers of the request.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to insert the location indicators into the URL as one or more extension headers of the request.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the resource requests are hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) requests.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location indicators further indicate a vertical position of the WCDs.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is configured to selectively add location indicators to resource requests that identify suitable destination domains.

25. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is configured to selectively add location indicators to resource requests that are originated by one or more predetermined WCDs.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to add user profile information to the resource requests.

27. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to add WCD device classes to the resource requests.

28. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the location appending unit is further configured to add WCD device addresses to the resource requests.

29. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the resource requests are wireless application protocol (WAP) requests.

30. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein at least one of the location indicators is predefined.

31. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein at least one of the location indicators dynamically changes.

44. The system of claim 28, wherein the resource request is a wireless application protocol (WAP) request.

45. The system of claim 28, wherein the location indicator based on said one coverage area is predefined.

46. The system of claim 28, wherein the location indicator based on said one coverage area dynamically changes.

32. A system for obtaining location-based information services, comprising:

means for receiving a resource request from an access point having a plurality of coverage areas, the resource request originated by a short-range wireless communications device (WCD) within one of the plurality of coverage areas;

means for adding to the resource request a location indicator that identifies a location of the WCD, wherein the location indicator is based on said one coverage area; and

means for forwarding the resource request to a content server.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the location indicator includes location coordinates.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein said means for appending includes inserting the location indicator into a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

35. The system of claim 32, wherein said means for inserting includes inserting the location indicator into the resource request as one or more headers of the resource request.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the one or more headers are extension headers.

37. The system of claim 32, wherein the resource request is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request.

38. The system of claim 32, wherein the location indicator further indicates a vertical position of the WCD.

39. The system of claim 32, wherein said means for adding comprises means for selectively adding the location indicator to the resource request when the resource request identifies a suitable destination domain.

40. The system of claim 32, wherein said means for adding comprises means for selectively adding the location indicator to the resource request when the resource request is originated by one or more predetermined WCDs.

41. The system of claim 32, further comprising means for adding user profile information to the resource request.

42. The system of claim 32, further comprising means for adding a device class of the WCD to the resource request.

43. The system of claim 32, further comprising means for adding a device address of the WCD to the resource request.

47. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for enabling a processor in a computer system to obtain location based services, the computer program logic comprising:

program code for enabling the processor to receive a resource request from an access point having a plurality of coverage areas, the resource request originated by a short-range wireless communications device (WCD) within one of the plurality of coverage areas;

program code for enabling the processor to add to the resource request a location indicator that identifies a location of the WCD, wherein the location indicator is based on said one coverage area; and

program code for enabling the processor to forward the resource request to a content server.

48. An apparatus for providing location-based services, comprising:

a plurality of short-range wireless communications modules, each configured to communicate with one or more WCD devices through a corresponding coverage area;

a network interface coupled to a data network infrastructure for enabling communication with at least one content server;

a memory;

a processor that executes instructions stored in the memory for;

receiving a resource request originated by a wireless communications device (WCD) through one of the short-range wireless communications modules;

adding to the resource request a location indicator that identifies a location of the WCD, wherein the location indicator is based on the coverage area corresponding to said one short-range wireless communications module; and

forwarding the resource request including the added location information to a content server through the network interface.

49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the location indicator is predefined.

50. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the location indicator dynamically changes.

51. A method of obtaining location-based information services, comprising:

(a) receiving a resource request originated by a short-range wireless communications device (WCD);

(b) forwarding the resource request to a content server;

(c) receiving from the content server an instruction for a location indicator that identifies a location of the WCD;

(c) determining the location indicator based on one of a plurality of coverage areas associated with an access point, wherein the WCD communicates with the access point through said one coverage area, and

(d) sending the location indicator to the content server.